Defence lawyer in Gee-Gees sex assault trial suspended

The Law Society of Ontario has suspended the licence of Christian Deslauriers, the lawyer representing one of the accused in the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees sexual assault trial in Thunder Bay, Ont.

In a decision released on Feb. 23, the society agreed with two allegations against Deslauriers and suspended him for three months.

According to the law society's release on the hearing, between June 2010 and September2011 Deslauriers failed to assume complete responsibility for his legal aid work and abdicated it to a student-at-law.

Beginning in Sept. 2011, the society said he also failed to ensurea student who had been working with wasproperly licensed.

In addition to the suspension, Deslauriers has to pay costs of $12,500 to the law society within 18 months of the end of his suspension.

Deslauriersalso represented Sen. PatrickBrazeau, who was cleared of charges of fraud and breach of trust, and is currently representingGuillaumeDonovan, one of two former hockey players facing one charge of sexual assault related to an incident that followeda Gee-Gees away game in Thunder Bay in 2014.

CBC reached out to to Deslauriers, butcalls were not returned.

The judge in the Thunder Bay trial is expected to deliver a decision on June 25.